Recycle or Upcycle Old Cabinet with Hutch

I love painted furniture. I mean love, love, love... See my Mac and Cheese upcycled TV Console. I spent more money on this hutch than necessary. I bought it off a friend and didn't negotiate on price :(

 

This piece is actually uglier in person it's more orange (boo Clemson).

 

 

The after looks sooooo much better, don't you think?!

 

 

Tip: I find it best to not be in a hurry when painting furniture, you want as smooth as possible finish and hurrying thru just doesn't work. Let the paint dry completely between finishes.

 

Supplies:

1. Foam Brushes
2. Foam Rollers
3. Paint Liner
4. Screw Driver
5. Paint: I used Lowe's Vanilla Steam semi-gloss exterior (OK, I know it looks white in the above photo, but it's far from it. Vanilla Steam is the perfect neutral)
6. Stencil of your choice
7. Primer: I like to use Zinsser, it's a no sand - sticks to anything primer.
8. Drop Cloth
9. 2 2x4's or 4 brick (something to keep the hutch off the floor while painting.)

 

 

Tip: Make sure to set the area up before you start your project. (I'm a little OCD)

 

 

First,  I set up my work area

 

Then, put down the 2x4

 

 

Next, I removed the drawers, hardware and doors (above photo is before the removal)

 

 

Now that the area has been setup I do the prep work.

 

First, Cleaning the hutch

 

I use this wonder product from Lowe's to clean , it keeps from having to sand, it's called TSP.

 

Get ready for the dirt and grime to be removed, have plenty of warm water handy to wash out the dirty cloth. It is very important to let the wood dry out completely before you begin the next step, priming the wood. 

 

Now,

 

Prime: I cannot stress enough to take your time. Make sure your primer stays fresh and your foam roller clean. (I've mentioned before I'm a little OCD). This will actually go a lot quicker than you think. I used 2 coats of primer. The first coat goes slower than the second.

 

 

The foam roller worked well for most of the painting, but you will need your FOAM brush to get the corners, lip etc.

 

First Coat Primer Bottom Cabinet



 

Second Coat Primer Top Cabinet

 

Now that the pieces are primed and have dried thoroughly you are ready to paint.

 

I know I took photos of this process, but the only one I can find is this one below of the 2nd coat of Vanilla Steam.

 

 

The hardware,

 

I used the original hinges, drawer pulls and bottom cabinet knobs.

 

HOWEVER, I did change the look of the the hinges

 

I have spray paint on hand (I have lots of paint on hand) Hammered Bronze

 

 

I changed the knobs on the hutch to glass. These babies were on clearance at Lowe's for .75 cents! I picked up all they had left about a year ago hoping for a project:)

 

 

 

I did forget to take photos of the stencil process...

 

The bottom of this hutch has 2 raised panels, I found this cute bird on clearance 4 or 5 months ago. Of course I picked up hoping for a future use.  I guess I found it!

 

 

I centered the stencil on the raised panel and painted away. (FYI, this is the first time I've every used a stencil)

 

and VOILA!!!

 

I filled with only a few thing, pieces of my Great Grandmother's China



A photo of my Grandma (I think I look like her)

 

Her picnic basket on top

 

 

 

 



I would love to see your projects!

mel:D



 

 

 

 

Homemade Laundry Soap

I know I am in a very unique situation here... How is making laundry soap unique? Well, it's not, but I don't do laundry... Yep, you read that correctly I DON'T DO LAUNDRY. My wonderful hubby is the laundry guru in our house.  My BFF groans every time we talk about it, LOL;)

When I found the recipe for laundry soap about a year ago, he wasn't gung-ho about trying it, so I let the matter drop (you believe that right!?). In between taking photos of houses today (I'm a REALTOR) I stopped by Wal-mart to pick up soap for the dishwasher. I just so happened to see BORAX, the heavens parted and angels started singing. The wonders of having a Droid Razar and the Pinterest App on my phone I found the recipe on my phone in seconds. You can see the original here. The recipe is for a small amount at a time, "Ain't Nobody Got Time for That" So, in true form I improvised.

Ok, enough of the story you really wanna know about the soap, right?!

FYT, I found everything I needed at Wal-Mart in the isle with mops (I remember seeing mops).

 

1 Box of Borax

1 Box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soap

3 Bars of Fels-Naptha

 

You will need

 

A bowl

Cheese grater

Blender

 

Step 1:

 

Shred the 3 Fels-Naptha Bars

 

 

2nd

 

Get the blender out

Take a handful of the shredded Fels-Naptha

Add some Borax

Pulse/Blend

 

 

I just kept adding the shredded Fels-Naptha

 

(It works best to make this in small batches at a time)

 

Dumped the shredded mix it into a bowl

 

 

3rd

 

Dump the Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soap and the bowl of pulsed up Fels-Naptha into a container with a top. 

 

We are using 2 TABLESPOONS PER LOAD

 

Other's have said 2 tsp per load, but the hubby says it just isn't enough

 

I'll update this page every once and a while and let you know how many loads we got out of this batch. I've read from 100 to 256 and it lasts a year or longer!!! WOW, that would be awesome!!!

 

I've gotta make this container a little cuter;)

Yard Sale Finds:) Painting the Bird Cage

I love to go to yard sales!!!  My mama and I cannot wait for March in South Carolina; warmer weather, flowers are blooming, and the yard sale season is on! I found this little gem last spring for $3.00.

 

I've used it all over the house inside and out. I had a potted Begonia in from spring to the first frost. I brought it in and used it during Christmas. I filled with silver painted pine cones and silver Christmas balls ornaments. During Halloween I had a black crow in there, so many different things.

 

I pulled out the gallon of oops paint I got for $5.00 at Lowe's.

 

 

Got my handy dandy foam brush out. ( I keep these on hand)

 

 

 You can see I didn't go for perfect

 

 

Yes, that's Thomas under the bird cage, recycled my son's old sheet for drop cloths!

 

Now what to fill it with for spring!

 

Christmas Fever! O Come Let Us Adore Him

This sign was inspired by one I saw at Not My Own. You can go there to see the original.  I did this project for less than $3.00!  How is that possible? I had all the materials already on hand:)

My neighbor gave me several1x4's about a year ago and they've been sitting in my storage building.

I cut 4 4' pieces and 2 20" pieces. It took about 5 minutes to cut the wood. After lining up the 4 footers I took the 2 smaller pieces and nailed them to the back.

After this I flipped it over got the hammer out and handed it to my little boy!  He had a blast adding the divots!

After this we brought it inside and got out the paint I had on hand. If you need a great netural paint Valspar's Vanilla Steam from Lowe's is wonderful! One (yes, only one) coat later this is what I've got.

I wasn't looking for a perfect finish, I wanted a more rustic look. This only took about 5 minutes to complete.

If you have a steady hand by all means freehand the lettering. I didn't want to attempt it free hand, and didn't want to pay the money to make stencils. I don't have an overhead projector, or a printer at home that works... So I was at a loss of how to do my letters for about an hour.

This is what I came up with: 

I got out the laptop, open MS Word, grabbed some scratch paper, and a pen.

Very gently trace over the letters. This works GREAT!!!!!!

This took about 30 minutes mostly because I had a hard time choosing the fonts I wanted to use.

One more thing I set the font size to 600 and 700.

Once this was completed I set the words out on the painted board to see exactly where it needed to go.

If i would have taken the easy route I would have used my Exacto knife and cut the letters out, buttttt I did it a little backwards. I cut the letters out on the board making my life a little bit harder.

Once this was completed I open my sample paint purchase and began filling in the lettering.

I tried the foam brush but didn't like it, use the craft brushes they work so much better!

Again, I wasn't going for perfect. I wanted a kinda it's been sitting neglected for a while.

This is the result:

I would love to see your projects!

Christmas Ball Wreath

We all know about my wreath obession and this one is by far my favorite! My little boy helped me with this one we had a blast. 

I used about 90 ornaments all different sizes. Stop by your local Dollar Tree and pick up ornaments, you are looking at around $10 total!!!!!

Before you start layout all those ornaments, pull the tops off and add a couple drops of hot glue and attach the top again. This will take 20-30 minutes.

The ornaments will start to pop off if you don't glue the tops, so go ahead and do this step now and save yourself some time!

Now, take that wire hanger and bend it into a circle.

Start threading your ornaments

It's going to look a little funny, you are gonna wonder if your doing it correctly! Yes you are, don't worry, those ornaments will start to fill in.

Add a ribbon to the top

After I got the wreath up on the mirror, I noticed it need a couple of fillers, I took the smallest ornaments and hot glued a few into places giving it a really full rounded look!